Most states require the executor to file an inventory of everything the estate owns, valued as of the date of death, within a fixed window after appointment. It is the single most common step to miss, because nothing prompts you — the court simply expects it.
| State | Due within | What the rule says |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2 months | Inventory within 2 months of appointment unless the will excuses it.not yet confirmed Ala. Code tit. 43, ch. 2 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Arizona | 90 days | Inventory within 90 days of appointment; filed with the court or mailed to interested persons.not yet confirmed A.R.S. §14-3706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Arkansas | 2 months | Inventory within 2 months of appointment.not yet confirmed Ark. Code §28-49-110 · last checked 2026-07 |
| California | 4 months | Inventory and Appraisal (DE-160) is due within 4 months after letters are first issued.read at source Cal. Prob. Code §8800(b) · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Colorado | 3 months | Inventory within 3 months of appointment; Colorado does not file it with the court by default — it goes to interested persons and anyone who requests it.not yet confirmed C.R.S. §15-12-706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Connecticut | 2 months | Inventory within 2 months of appointment (form PC-440).not yet confirmed C.G.S. §45a-341 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Florida | 60 days | Inventory due within 60 days after letters are issued.not yet confirmed Fla. Prob. R. 5.340 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Georgia | 6 months | Inventory generally due within 6 months of qualification unless the will or the heirs relieve the representative of filing it.not yet confirmed OCGA §53-7-30 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Illinois | 60 days | Inventory generally filed within 60 days of letters.not yet confirmed 755 ILCS 5/14-1 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Indiana | 60 days | Inventory within 60 days of appointment; in unsupervised administration it is not filed with the court unless an interested person requests it.not yet confirmed IC 29-1-12-1 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Iowa | 90 days | Report and inventory within 90 days of appointment.not yet confirmed Iowa Code §633.361 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Kentucky | 60 days | Inventory within 60 days of appointment.not yet confirmed KRS §395.250 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Louisiana | sworn descriptive list | Louisiana uses a sworn detailed descriptive list of succession property, filed in the succession proceeding with the fair market value of each item at the date of death, in lieu of a common-law inventory.read at source La. C.C.P. art. 3136 · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Massachusetts | 3 months | Inventory within 3 months of appointment.not yet confirmed G.L. c. 190B §3-706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Michigan | 91 days | Personal representative generally serves and files an inventory within 91 days of appointment.not yet confirmed MCR 5.307 / MCL 700.3706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Mississippi | 90 days | Sworn inventory within 90 days of appointment unless waived.not yet confirmed Miss. Code §91-7-93 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Missouri | 30 days | Inventory within 30 days after letters are granted.not yet confirmed RSMo §473.233 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Montana | 9 months | Inventory within 9 months after appointment — Montana modified the UPC and does not use the 3-month rule.read at source MCA §72-3-607 · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Nevada | 120 days | Inventory within 120 days after issuance of letters; the older 60-day figure is obsolete.not yet confirmed NRS §144.010 · last checked 2026-07 |
| New York | 6 months | Inventory of assets generally filed within 6 months of letters.not yet confirmed Uniform Rules for Surrogate's Court §207.20 · last checked 2026-07 |
| North Carolina | 3 months | Inventory due within 3 months after qualification, unless the clerk extends the time.read at source NCGS §28A-20-1 · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Ohio | 3 months | Inventory generally due within 3 months of the fiduciary's appointment.read at source ORC §2115.02 · last checked 2026-09-07 |
| Oregon | 90 days | Inventory within 90 days of appointment.not yet confirmed ORS §113.165 · last checked 2026-07 |
| South Carolina | 90 days | Inventory and appraisement within 90 days of appointment.not yet confirmed S.C. Code §62-3-706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Tennessee | 60 days | Inventory within 60 days of appointment unless the will or all beneficiaries waive it.not yet confirmed T.C.A. §30-2-301 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Utah | 3 months | Inventory within 3 months of appointment; may be sent to interested persons rather than filed.not yet confirmed Utah Code §75-3-706 · last checked 2026-07 |
| Virginia | 4 months | Inventory due to the Commissioner of Accounts within 4 months after the order conferring authority.read at source Va. Code §64.2-1300 · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Virginia | 5/4/3/2% guideline | "Reasonable compensation" with no statutory percentage. Each circuit's Commissioner of Accounts publishes a guideline scale and audits the account against it; the widely-used scale is 5% of the first $400k of inventory value, 4% of the next $300k, 3% of the next $300k, 2% above $1M, plus 5% of income receipts. LOCAL to each circuit, and guidelines rather than law. Compensation can be forfeited if the account is filed late.read at source Va. Code §64.2-1208; Commissioner of Accounts guidelines · last checked 2026-09-05 |
| Wisconsin | 6 months | Inventory within a reasonable time, no later than 6 months after appointment.not yet confirmed Wis. Stat. §858.01 · last checked 2026-07 |
Settle builds this checklist into a plan you can actually work
The steps above, ordered for your situation in your state, with the deadlines on a calendar, your documents attached to the step that needs them, and an expense ledger for everything the estate owes you back. The plan itself is free.
Every figure on this page links to the statute or court source it came from and shows the date we last read it. 22 of the 29 citations on this page carry the “not yet confirmed” tag. That means we recorded the citation from a secondary source and have not yet read it against the primary statute text ourselves. We could have left those rows out and the page would look better — but it would imply the rest were checked too, which is exactly the impression nobody should be given about a court deadline.
The full registry, including everything we have not confirmed, is published at Where the state information comes from. If the court or your attorney gave you a different date, please tell us at [email protected] — it is the fastest way to get it fixed for the next executor.
A state is missing from this table because we have not yet read and recorded its rule from a primary source — not because the rule does not exist. Every state has a guide of its own with whatever we have confirmed for it: see all 51 executor guides.